Chapter 13 Smooth play
Nan Xiao and Chen Mingshuo chatted a lot along the way, and by the time they returned to the villa, it was already dark, but although the living room was empty at this time, they could still see the meal that Lu Ying had prepared for them on the table. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info
After a brief dinner, the two of them did not say anything more, and went back to their respective rooms to rest; Nan Xiao suddenly felt extremely heavy after returning to his room, he didn't know how to face Shen Chao in the future, he didn't even know if Shen Chao would understand him and forgive him; With a stomach full of questions and anguish, he finally fell asleep after a long tossing and turning.
Sunderland had an easy run of fixtures after the win over Everton, but it was only relative, as they didn't have to face any higher-ranked teams in the next five games, but there were still some tough teams to play against, such as Southampton, who still threatened their bid for Europa League qualification.
After Shen Chao learned from Chen Mingshuo that Nan Xiao might leave the team after the end of the season, his relationship with Nan Xiao suddenly became rigid, although Nan Xiao wanted to take the initiative to ease the relationship between the two many times, but he was always afraid that it would stimulate Shen Chao more and never really took this step; Although You Lu's three girls could also see that there were some problems between the two of them, they were not good at interfering in the affairs between the boys, so they had to not interfere; As for Chen Mingshuo, he can be said to be the fuse of this matter, so there is no need to persuade him.
Sunderland played well in their next five matches, beating Middlesbrough and West Ham United away and then returning home to win and draw with West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace, before losing 1-0 to goalkeeper Mannone in their final game away to Southampton, dropping out three valuable points in their Europa League qualification campaign.
Sunderland's tactics in the final game against Southampton were very clear, that is, to ensure that the away side had a point smoothly, so in that game, Southshaw also put Halilovic and Draxler on the bench and played in a back five formation; In the first 85 minutes of the game, Sunderland's performance was completely planned, their solid defence did not allow the "Saints" to get too many good shots, and Mannone could be considered relatively good, blocking opponents' shots on goal on a number of occasions and not getting off the hook; If he can keep this performance until the end of the game, he will probably be crowned the man of the match, but what no one expected was that the Italian goalkeeper Mannone who played well throughout the game would make a jaw-dropping mistake in the final five minutes of the game.
The source of the mistake was a return pass from full-back Juanfran who was trying to control the tempo of the game when Sunderland was passing at the back, but Southampton certainly wouldn't let them control possession very easily, so Shaun Long also harassed Sunderland's ball-handler up front by running non-stop; When the ball passed to Juanforan's feet, Sean Lang naturally forced the Spaniard holding the ball, Juan Fran did not panic in the face of Sean Lang running towards him, after all, the opponent only had one person to grab, so he also calmly passed the ball back to his goalkeeper; Mannone also seemed very relaxed when facing the passing ball, because the ball rolled very slowly, so he also took advantage of the situation on the field as the ball was traveling, but what he didn't expect was that because he paid too much attention to observing the situation, he carelessly did not stop the ball at his feet, and when he found it, it was too late, and he could only watch the ball roll slowly but straight into the net!
Apart from a disappointing defeat against Southampton, Sunderland have played well in their first four games; Draxler scored again in the away win over Middlesbrough, and although the German genius has been a little quiet since his debut, his goal in this 1-0 win was very important!
After the victory over Middlesbrough, Sunderland followed up with another away challenge to the "Hammers" West Ham United, because the French midfielder Payet has been deeply involved in transfer rumours in recent days, causing the atmosphere in the West Ham team to be very depressing, so Sunderland also took this opportunity to take advantage of the fire to easily take away a victory from their home stadium, this game for Sunderland scored by Brazilian teenager Carlos, team scorer Defoe, and Ivory Coast veteran Colo Toure, Among them, Defoe scored two goals and gave an assist, winning the title of the best player of the game!
After returning to the home stadium, Sunderland continued to maintain their excellent performance, they bloodied the visiting West Bromwich Albion team with a score of 5-1 at the Stadium of Light, and the Sunderland team showed their blood after conceding a goal first, scoring three goals in a row before half-time to beat West Bromwich Albion's players into a daze, especially the second goal from Draxler, the German broke through the defense of at least four men on the left flank, and finally shook the goalkeeper to score an empty goal. It drew a lot of applause from the home fans; In the end, a total of 5 Sunderland team scored in this game, and it is worth mentioning that Zhang Xiuwei, who came on as a substitute in the 60th minute, made an eye-catching performance of one pass and one shot, which also made Nan Xiao feel quite gratified.
The fourth game is to host Crystal Palace, because Sunderland won the first meeting of the season by a large margin, so the visiting Crystal Palace team also held back a breath of revenge; They took an active offensive as soon as they came up, and relied on the advantage of Belgian center forward "King Kong" Benteke to constantly start the ball in the penalty area from the two wings for high-altitude bombing, and their tactics proved to be effective, in the 25th minute of the game, the away Crystal Palace team took advantage of Benteke's header to cross the Cabaye from behind to complete a blast to break through the door of the Sunderland team! But less than five minutes later, Sunderland were quick to hit back when Defoe turned and volleyed in to equalise for the home side; Neither team was able to score again in the following game, and the score was fixed at 1-1, and in the end the two teams drew and each won a point!