Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales.

The Carabao Cup final between Millwall and Chelsea has officially begun, with both sides arguably fielding their 'semi-main' line-ups.

As for Millwall, Pire, Quaresma and Braniff all rested for one round, and Pire did not even enter the squad, only sitting in the stands, presumably hoping to celebrate the championship with the team.

The starting striker was also replaced by Jamie Vardy, and the back line was not adjusted much, but considering strengthening the wing attack, Zhang Yang still chose to send Konchesky.

There were also changes to Chelsea's starting line-up.

In addition to the injured players, the most prominent was that the striker became Shepchenko, and Drogba did not play for the team.

This adjustment is still relatively large.

At the start of the season, Shepchenko played more games, but as time went by, Mourinho became more and more intolerant of Shepchenko, and with injuries in the middle of the season, the latter had fewer opportunities to start.

By this time, Drogba had just finished the Champions League, and the successive games also caused the Ivorians to suffer a physical crisis, and Shepchenko had the opportunity to play as a central striker.

Although there was not much preparation for the game, both sides took the game very seriously.

The League Cup is also a cup winner.

Millwall have won the Community Shield this season and are looking to win a second title, and the Carabao Cup has reached this level with old rivals and Jose Mourinho will certainly give Chelsea their all.

The tactics of both sides, as in the Champions League, were largely unadjusted.

And so a head-on confrontation officially began.

From the outset of the game, it was clear that Chelsea were playing very hard, yes, desperately, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it.

Millwall can be said to be Chelsea's 'enemy of life and death', and they have been Chelsea's biggest rivals in the past two seasons, and the most embarrassing thing is that when Chelsea have not beaten Millwall so far, they have a very obvious disadvantage in the performance of Millwall.

When Chelsea met Millwall, the media comments were tragic, with many even arguing that "Millwall are more likely to win." ”

That's not a professional analysis, it's 'various' personal opinions.

This is the change in public opinion.

The basis of all kinds of 'personal opinions' is not Chelsea's strength and performance, but Mourinho's against Zhang Yang, who has always been at a disadvantage, but could not beat Millwall, in the eyes of the Chelsea players, it is a humiliation for them, they have to go all out to try to beat Millwall, not only the temptation of the title, beating Millwall to prove that it is much more meaningful than winning the cup.

That's what a lot of Chelsea think, and you can imagine the desperate effort of the Chelsea players when they put it into the game.

Chelsea know Millwall very well, and they don't need to prepare for the game at all, they know that Millwall will play the so-called 'double core' style of play, and only the 'double core' style of play that controls the midfield can be able to fight against Chelsea's 'back three', otherwise the situation will become very passive.

Millwall's style of play has no advantage against Chelsea.

As most people understand, Chelsea have three midfielders, a 443 formation that is full of attack and defense, and the control of the midfield is very effective, and the full-court pressing will also make it more difficult for Millwall to play together.

Chelsea players know what to do, all they need is to be in pressing.

As long as Millwall has the ball, they keep running, constantly creating pressure, no matter how good the coordination is, they are afraid of pressing, plus the defensive advantage, it is easy for them to play an advantageous situation.

However, the Chelsea players probably forgot that the main reason for their defeat was not the 'game situation', but Millwall's higher efficiency in front of goal.

It was clearly reflected in the game.

In the first 30 minutes of the first half, Chelsea were in the ascendancy, taking the initiative in the midfield and having more attacks and more shots than Millwall.

But...... Shepchenko may not have had shooting boots in him.

Thirty minutes passed, and the whole Chelsea team kept playing the ball to Shepchenko, who had four chances on goal, three of which were not in the woodwork, and the only one was a little less powerful and was comfortably picked up by Graham.

Shepchenko alone accounted for half of the shots, while other Chelsea players, such as Frank Lampard, simply fired a long-range shot from the edge of the area and did not directly threaten the goal.

Millwall is different.

Millwall had fewer attacks and fewer shots, but the occasional two shots on goal made Chelsea feel immediately threatened.

Millwall's shots were centred down the middle, with Simpson and Vardy each kicking twice, while Mitchell also had one, with three of his five shots hitting the woodwork.

Such an efficiency gap makes Mourinho very worried about the game.

In recent times, Mourinho's 'life' has not been good, and there are no problems within the team, but because the league can only be ranked third, Abramovich is extremely dissatisfied with him, and the chairman is not satisfied alone, and the rest of the club has also begun to 'argue' with him.

Peter Kenyon is one.

As the CEO of Chelsea, Peter Kenyon has always been one of Chelsea's 'Big Three', and Mourinho's status is equal, because the club's peripheral business is developing rapidly, Chelsea Club's commercial income is rising, Peter Kenyon is also more and more trusted by Abramovich, the current Chelsea club, Mourinho can not intervene in the operation department at all, if he can continue to coach next season, perhaps his transfer authority will be affected.

Peter Kenyon is just that.

Chelsea also have a black manager who is in charge of the academy, and this black manager has the trust of Roman Abramovich to poach young talent everywhere for Chelsea.

In January after Christmas, Mourinho quarreled with the opponent because they wanted to get into the first team, but Mourinho didn't like young players who 'need to be developed'.

There was a direct contradiction between the two sides.

Perhaps it is also a contradiction in the position of running the club, Mourinho is the manager of the club, and he wants the first team to be players who can play, and there are no young players who 'need to be trained'.

This will make the team's results more consistent.

The youth training director, including the CEO in charge of the development of the club, does not see it that way, whether it is a big club or a small club, the youth training system is still very important, cultivate their own players, put them into the first team and slowly experience, it will become the future of the club.

This is the way to go in the long run.

At present, most of the players from the academy have left, and the only remaining 'top card' is John Terry, in order to make the first team meet the FA regulations, Chelsea have to report some 'make up' players, in the eyes of the coach in charge of the academy, it is naturally a bit wasteful, and it is equivalent to denying their work results.

These are contradictions.

In fact, the root of the problem lies in the results of the team, Mourinho's results cannot satisfy Abramovich, there is no authority without results, and the rest of the club naturally does not pay attention to Mourinho, because they believe that they will work longer than Mourinho.

In such a working environment, Mourinho has to guarantee results, but just like Millwall could not prepare for the Carabao Cup, Chelsea also had the same problem, and the situation was even worse, they did not even have time to adjust their mentality, needless to say that they had no time to adjust their form, and they flew to Cardiff just after the big game against Porto, and there was no time to prepare at all.

Mourinho can only let Shepchenko play, hoping that Ukraine's nuclear warheads can be in good shape.

Now, he's disappointed.

Seeing that the attacks failed again and again, and the opponent's fewer attacks created a greater threat, Mourinho had an urge to make a substitution, "Replace Sheva!" Let ......"

Mourinho glanced at the bench and hesitated to let Drogba play.

Millwall are no longer waiting for Mourinho to decide.

In the 37th minute, Chelsea's goal was officially lost, and just before the goal, the Sky Sports commentator said, 'It was difficult to score in the first half, the battle seemed fierce but both sides were very focused on defence. It seems that if you want to score, you will have to wait until the second half ......"

Then, Millwall scored.

It was a shot from Simpson, who had given Vardy a header from Smitchell's foot, but Vardy couldn't get on top of it, the ball bounced off Terry, and Simpson followed up with a volley.

"Simpson! Simpson! “

The Sky Sports commentator shouted, "Taking advantage of the chaos in the penalty area, Simpson followed up and kicked the ball into the net!" The young Canadian midfielder helped Millwall break the deadlock and showed exquisite footwork! ”

'Just two days ago, Simpson scored for Millwall at the Bernabeu, it was a brilliant direct free-kick, and now Simpson has another crucial shot!

'Millwall are 1-0 ahead of Chelsea!'

"Perhaps as many people have analysed, Zhang Yang seems to be Mourinho's nemesis, and whenever he meets Millwall, Chelsea's performance loses its standard ......"

“……”

Chelsea fans are hurting.

Chelsea fans came to Cardiff to see the team beat Millwall to win the Carabao Cup, but many people were not optimistic about Chelsea before the game, they were angry about it, and they wanted Chelsea to perform, and now they are very disappointed to see this goal -

Could it be that Chelsea really can't beat Millwall?

No!

Chelsea fans would prefer 'Jose Mourinho can't beat Zhang Yang'!

And so it was established.

Many Chelsea fans thought of Abramovich's praise and flamboyance before the game, and they looked at the Millwall dugout and thought about 'Zhang Yang becoming Chelsea manager', "It must be much better than Mourinho as manager, right?" ”