Since there was no controversy about this year's European Ballon d'Or winners, the next day's European mainstream media gave the headline to Ielloh, who had just won the Ballon d'Or, with the headline unified: From today onwards, please call him European Footballer of the Year!

France Football, the newspaper that launched the European Ballon d'Or, naturally had first-hand reporting resources: "Congratulations to Chelsea player Ai for winning the 2007 European Ballon d'Or, but we all believe that this award is not the end for him, it just so happens that this is just a good beginning, just like Ronaldo in 1997, so that he can get out of control, club honors, national team honors, and finally become the best star on the planet, hopefully as he said, next year, the year after, I will be able to win this European Golden Globe Award every year after graduation! Come on, because there are no limits to the road ahead......"

In the background, Iello stands in the press hall at Stamford Bridge and holds the European Ballon d'Or trophy aloft.

What "France Football" didn't know was that their prediction would one day come true, but that's a story for later, so let's not mention it for the time being.

The headline of The Times, Britain's best-selling newspaper, was the general comment of the entire English newspaper: "The winner of the European Ballon d'Or was selected yesterday at 11 a.m. by the well-known European newspaper "French Football" magazine, and this selection can be said to be undisputed, because the winner was recognized as a very good performer throughout 2007, who helped Valencia to the league title in the 2006-2007 season. The Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League treble is a milestone achievement......"

Marca newspaper made the headline of the day from the point of view of lamenting the loss of a superstar in La Liga: "Congratulations to former Valencia player Ai for winning the 2007 European Ballon d'Or award by France Football, this trophy is well deserved, because his performance in the past season has been perfect and amazing, he almost single-handedly brought Valencia to the height of the treble, but unfortunately he switched to Chelsea in the Premier League this summer, La Liga has one less superstar, but everyone can still watch his wonderful performance from the curtain......"

By the middle of December, except for the Premier League, which has no winter break, the other leagues have basically entered the winter break, so the media in European countries are focusing on the European Ballon d'Or winners.

Because most fans have a holiday during the Euroleague winter break, but it just so happens that at this time, most of the leagues in Europe have started to take a holiday, so it is natural to focus on the Premier League without a winter break, and Elogh's election to the European Ballon d'Or has become one of the topics they discuss after dinner.

Of course, in addition to the European media paying great attention to the European Ballon d'Or winners, the Asian sports media also expressed a lot of interest, because Iello is the first European Footballer of the Year honor won by an Asian player in Europe, so AFC President Hamman and Vice President Zhang Jilong have praised Arlo on many occasions, and at the same time hinted that the Chinese XX Football Association should do things in moderation.

Suddenly, Tang Shun, the chairman of the XX Football Association, and Lin Yao, the vice chairman of the XX Football Association, were shot, because they still have a lot of work to do in charge of the Football Association, and there is no extra time to spend on the players in Europe.

So...... It can only be delayed again and again.

※※※

At a time when the European media was flooding with reports of Eloh being the European Footballer of the Year, Iroh was not as excited as he was when he was elected, as Chelsea were set to play a Carabao Cup quarter-final at Stamford Bridge at 4pm against Liverpool in their second red-blue clash of the new season.

But for the English media, this English League Cup quarter-final is not as good as the annual European Ballon d'Or, because the League Cup is not so interesting for many English fans, and it is not as good as an FA Cup qualifier in their minds.

So apart from the Blues Chelsea and Reds Liverpool fans, there are basically not many fans who pay attention to this game.

However, for Chinese fans, if it weren't for the live broadcast list in the live broadcast center, they would not have known that there would be such an English League Cup quarter-final, because their attention was all on Iello being elected European Footballer of the Year.

As a professional fan, I naturally know the gold content of the European Ballon d'Or, which is incomparable to the World Footballer of the Year selected by FIFA.

Add to that the fact that Iello has earned more points at this year's European Ballon d'Or than Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi and Drogba, who finished second to fourth combined, and this is a clear statement.

Therefore, this Carabao Cup quarter-final when Chelsea hosted Liverpool became Elo's first stop after becoming the European Footballer of the Year award.

The 2007-2008 English League Cup quarter-finals slowly began to attract the attention of Chinese fans.

In order to resonate with fans from as far away as China, Chelsea Football Club also hosted a grand ceremony for Iello before the Carabao Cup match at home to Liverpool - to welcome the new European Footballer of the Year!

That is, Iello held high the trophy of the European Ballon d'Or and showed his face at Stamford Bridge to show the fans who came to the scene Elo's demeanor.

Interestingly, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was also present in the VIP table and clapped hard as Iello lifted the Ballon d'Or, like a regular fan in attendance.

※※※

In fact, this League Cup 1/4 final is not as fierce as imagined, whether it is the home team Chelsea or the away team Liverpool, they have no intention of sending the main team in this game, not because they don't care about the League Cup winner, after all, no matter how small the mosquito is, it is meat.

It's just that three days ago, both sides had a fierce league game, Chelsea's opponent is Arsenal, and Liverpool's opponent is Manchester United, both of which are strong contenders for the league title, and the energy invested is also very large, plus after the end of this League Cup 1/4, it means that the devil's schedule of the winter break is coming, and there is no need to focus too much energy on this League Cup.

Rather than taking the risk of injury with the main players, it is better to give some opportunities to substitute players and players in the development team.

Before the League Cup quarter-final with Liverpool, in addition to showing his European Ballon d'Or trophy, Iello sat on the bench and served as a substitute.

※※※

Although Chelsea and Liverpool both used substitutes and development squad players, the managers of both sides are more concerned about the Carabao Cup, and both are currently recognised as young managers in world football, with Jose Mourinho leading Porto to the UEFA Champions League title in 2003-2004 and Benitez leading Liverpool to UEFA Champions League title in 2004-2005, so both are among the top young coaches in European football.

In addition, Mourinho has not won against Benitez's Liverpool in the cup, so he is also out of this League Cup quarter-final.

And the same is true of Benitez, as a famous cup master of the Premier League, except for the elimination of Chelsea in the cup, he still has no victory in the league, so he wants to go off the rails, win the cup to the end, win this damn Portuguese!

The game kicks off promptly at 4 p.m. UK time.

Although the players on both sides of the game are not the absolute main force in the team, they do not want to let go of this opportunity to show themselves in front of the head coach, so the game is also quite intense, the referee showed three yellow cards to each side in the first half, which shows the intensity of the game.

From another angle, it can also be seen that the players on both sides of this game are committed to Cheng Dù, but unfortunately in the first half of the game both sides failed to break through the opponent's goal, ending 0:0.

Although the managers of both sides did not want to lose this game, it was still decided in the end, because if the game was still a draw at the end of 90 minutes, then it would be necessary to move to Anfield Stadium for another game, which is not good news for either Chelsea or Liverpool.

So...... Ninety minutes to decide the winner is in the interest of both sides.

At the start of the second half, Chelsea began to make changes, replacing Arjen Robben, who had not regained his form after returning from injury, with Elo.

Mourinho's substitution adjustment fully shows the essence of substitutions such as changing knives, Ailo brought a lot of pressure to Liverpool's back line in the second minute, when he came to the fifth minute, he used his personal ability to pass in the front of the penalty area, and then broke through to the penalty area and was tripped by Agger to the ground, and the referee decisively awarded a penalty.

With Frank Lampard, the first penalty taker, and Didier Drogba, the second penalty kick, not on the pitch, was taken by the person who created the penalty, Elo, who sent the ball straight into the top right corner of the net, where goalkeeper Reina pounced on the right side of his body and stepped in the wrong direction.

Next, Liverpool's formation began to advance, but they did not equalize the score because of this, but gave Ailo a lot of space to sprint, plus this Liverpool backline is not the main backline, and it is still a little immature to deal with a player of Elo's level.

Halfway through the second half, Iello capitalised on an attacking mistake from Liverpool, used his speed and technique to break into the penalty area, and then suddenly shot with his feet, goalkeeper Reyna reacted half a beat slowly, and the ball rolled into the near corner of the net and into the net.

Subsequently, Benitez began to make some changes to the lineup, replacing Gerrard, Torres and Carragher, but then Mourinho also went-for-tat, and Ballack and Mikel came on one after another, seeing the moves, and stabilizing the defense in midfield.

In the end, Chelsea won the Carabao Cup quarter-finals 2-0 at home to Liverpool and reach the last four of the Carabao Cup.

PS: Ask for a recommendation ticket!