Chapter Ninety-Three: The First Battle of the FA Cup

The meeting between Nan Xiao and Jiang Yanyan did not last too long, their conversation was basically around Jiang Yanyan's talk show except for the first few words of greetings, Nan Xiao felt that this was actually quite good, he originally did not have any special ideas to meet Jiang Yanyan, although in his heart Jiang Yanyan is still a very special existence, but reason and sense of responsibility always remind him that his current girlfriend is You Lu, and the current relationship between him and Jiang Yanyan is just an ordinary friend, If there is any special relationship, it is only the relationship of the ex's boyfriend and girlfriend. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After more than half a year, Jiang Yanyan has changed a lot in Nan Xiao's eyes, she has become much more independent than before, and she has more ideas of her own, he was very surprised when he first learned from Li Yan's mouth that Jiang Yanyan had established his own media company, because in his heart, Jiang Yanyan never seemed to have any talent in this area, or he had never noticed that Jiang Yanyan had this talent; In the course of their relationship, Nan Xiao has always been making all kinds of decisions, Jiang Yanyan has always played a role of obedience, in all aspects of life, she rarely puts forward her own opinions, Nan Xiao has never cared about this, he doesn't think there is anything wrong with this, he thinks that the decisions he makes are the best choice for the two of them.

Nan Xiao didn't choose to stay in London too much, after breaking up with Jiang Yanyan at the door of Amber's bar, he rushed to the train station to catch the latest train back to Sunderland, not that he didn't want to give himself more time to rest, but the team's schedule in January was too intensive, he had to hurry back to the club to deal with his own work, he didn't want to let the club's results stagnate under such a good momentum now, or even take a sharp turn for the worse.

It was seven o'clock in the evening when Nan Xiao returned to Sunderland, and as soon as he stepped out of the train station, he saw his Lamborghini parked on the other side of the street.

"Good work, Superman." Nan Xiao closed the car door, fastened his seat belt, and said.

"Yo, when did you become so polite to your buddy?" Shen Chao stepped on the accelerator lightly between his words, and said with the corners of his mouth raised.

"I've always been so polite, haven't I?" Nan Xiao sat in the co-pilot and said.

"You can pull it down, I see that you are polite to others, and I have never seen you polite to buddies." Shen Chao complained while driving.

"By the way, Superman, seriously, how are the two Sunderland students doing?" Nan Xiao shrewdly diverted the topic.

"Don't you say I almost forgot about it, I ran for the two of them for a day today, and finally got my buddy to do it, Clifford and Gavin will be able to represent the club in all competitions from tomorrow."

"Well done!" Nan Xiao patted his thigh excitedly when he heard this.

"Pretty, isn't it? How about the flute, do you have to consider considering raising the salary of your buddy? Shen Chao sinisterly raised his chin at Nan Xiao.

"Plus, you have to add, and from next month onwards you will be given an extra £1 a week as an encouragement." Nan Xiao said with a serious expression.

"you, what's a pound for?" Shen Chao scolded with a smile.

"Don't underestimate this pound, if you save enough to buy two apples7 by the time you retire." Nan Xiao pretended to be serious and said.

Nan Xiao hurriedly ate dinner after returning to the villa, and he logged into his mailbox at 10 o'clock as usual to see if there were any noteworthy emails.

"What are you doing in London today?" You Lu sat opposite Nan Xiao after cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks, looking through the team information for the next commentary game.

"Took care of some small things." Nan Xiao didn't want You Lu to know about Jiang Yanyan for the time being, so he just hurriedly brought this question over.

You Lu saw that Nan Xiao was engrossed in looking at the notebook in front of him, and he didn't seem to have any desire to chat with her, so he stopped talking to him, and the two of them took care of the work at hand.

The English FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world, and football clubs at all levels in England play one-on-one knockout rounds.

The most recent upset in the history of the FA Cup came in the final of the 2012/2013 season, when Wigan Athletic, mired in relegation, won the FA Cup with a surprise 1-0 victory over mighty Manchester City, but the newly lifted team were unable to avoid relegation from the Premier League, making them the first team in history to win the FA Cup as a relegated team.

Therefore, in the FA Cup, it is often unpredictable, and in the long course of history, there have been countless strong teams that have fallen at the feet of teams that are far inferior to them, so when Nan Xiao stepped on the FA Cup field for the first time as a coach, the only thing he had to do was not to let such a tragedy befall him.

In this game against the English One team Coventry, Nan Xiao once again sent a full bench lineup, the formation is still the same 343 formation as the last time Newcastle was played, the goalkeeper is 23-year-old local player Jordan Pickford, and the three central defenders are Koné and Joakim. Lantz and Clifford, who has just registered as a professional player, the midfield four from left to right are Gucci, Xu Xin, Watermore and Zhang Xiuwei, Borini is still at the front, and on either side of him are Danny Murphy and Larsson.

Although Coventry is a team from League One, their ability really shocked Nanxiao, because Lantz was promoted from the youth team, and Clifford had never even played professionally before that, so it was still a little difficult to defend against the Coventry team that was not very strong but had a lot of experience in the game; The Coventry City players also seemed to see that the two positions of Lantz and Clifford were the weakness of the Sunderland team, so they continued to attack the two players in rotation after the same idea, and the effect was very significant, and after only 20 minutes of the game, they were already 2-0 ahead of the home Sunderland team.

Bracewell kept persuading Nan Xiao on the sidelines that it was best to replace Clifford, but the stubborn Nan Xiao did not listen to the advice of the assistant coach, but fortunately, after conceding two goals, Clifford and Lantz gradually found the state of the game, although there are still obvious deficiencies in one-on-one defense, but the overall has gradually improved, and did not let the opponent get a good scoring opportunity before the end of the first half, and kept the score of 0-2 until the end of half.

Nan Xiao gave very patient psychological guidance to the two players at halftime, and told them that the first half of the game was okay, especially in the second 20 minutes, which can even be described as excellent, and the two players also regained their confidence again with Nan Xiao's encouragement, and they also said that they would definitely repay the coach's trust in Zijie with their excellent performance in the second half.

At the beginning of the second half, the Sunderland team, which was playing at home, also strengthened the attack, and the Coventry City team suddenly began to scramble in the face of the opponent's tidal attack, and the defense was full of holes, Danny Murphy and Borini were very clever to seize the opponent's two mistakes and score respectively, and in the second half less than 20 minutes later, the score was chased to a 2-2 draw!

At this time, Nan Xiao made substitution adjustments, and Elviti came on to replace the Chinese teenager Xu Xin, who performed decently.