Chapter Twenty-Nine: Farewell to the Veteran
As soon as the game began, the Lily Army, which was fighting at home, immediately took the initiative on the field.
Facing Tottenham, who play with a very pressing style, Crystal Palace, who are relatively weak, do not seem to have a good way to deal with it.
However, in the eighth minute, there was some misunderstanding between Dembele and N'Golo Kante.
They all thought they would go over to defend and were taken advantage of by Crystal Palace's attacking players to burst into the box.
Dembele, who was chasing back, was hot-headed and brought down former Arsenal striker Shamacher from behind, and was whistled for a foul by referee Michael Oliver.
The Belgian folded his head in frustration, and he didn't know what had just happened to him.
Penalty kick! Crystal Palace had a great chance to take the lead.
The camera was on the sidelines, and Tottenham manager Benjamin was expressionless.
Although there is no fluctuation on the surface, in fact, Benjamin has set off waves in his heart.
Can't you win the game by yourself without the system's function card?
So what have I been doing all these days?
Still too urgent? It was a penalty for a foul by Dembele, but Kante was absolutely inextricably involved.
It still takes time to grow, Benjamin sighed, didn't think much about it, and waited for the result of the penalty.
And then the scene that made everyone present jaw-dropping just happened.
Crystal Palace midfielder Pang Qiong's brilliant feint deceived Tottenham goalkeeper Lloris.
But then he hit a very outrageous penalty kick directly off the goal.
In an instant, the entire White Hart Lane stadium was jubilant.
Tottenham supporters gave a round of applause to Pang Qiong, who missed the penalty.
Benjamin also never expected that they would not be able to grasp the opportunity to give the opponent a penalty.
The score remained 0-0 and the visitors' performance was affected by the taunts of the Tottenham fans.
After an adrenaline-pumping high-speed break, Mane forced his foot to hit the goal and flew into the stands.
Seeing that the players who were playing on the field began to play freely again, the coach of the home team, Benjamin, couldn't help it, and came to the sidelines to shout loudly on the field.
"Cross! Cross! Don't just get up and bang on the door! I don't care if you play a high ball or an inverted triangle, just give me a cross! ”
In the 34th minute of the game, Kyle Walker crossed from the right side, and Adebayo in the middle headed back.
Eriksen, who followed up, shot into the net from the left rib of the penalty area!
1 to 0!
It has to be Erikson, Benjamin put his heart back, and he has returned to his previous calm and breezy appearance.
After a one-goal lead, the home side continued to play attacking football, squeezing Crystal Palace into the half.
Away goalkeeper Speroni flew up and struggled to keep Adebayor's push off the line.
The first half ended with a score of 1-0.
Something bad happened, Kyle Walker had some discomfort in his right leg, and out of the right side, Benjamin replaced him with Norton.
At the start of the second half, it was Tottenham who were firmly in control of the tempo of the game.
In the sixty-ninth minute, Benjamin was replaced by veteran Defoe, who was about to travel to Toronto.
"Jermaine, say goodbye to everyone!"
The fans in attendance were aware of Defoe's imminent departure from Tottenham and there was a round of applause from the crowd when he was substituted.
The England veteran, who has also established himself in the Premier League with speed, can't help but be a little moved at this moment.
Joining twice and playing for Tottenham for many years, Defoe is not the kind of striker who is very efficient at scoring goals, but he still scored more than 150 goals for Tottenham.
In that November 2009 match against Wigan Athletic, Defoe played a brilliant half-game with five sons, and Tottenham fans still praise them today.
Not to mention that during the tenure of Lao Lei, Tottenham returned to the Champions League after a long absence.
Although Defoe and Crouch, the traditional England pair, were not the protagonists, they still gave a great game for everyone.
So in the minds of Tottenham fans, Defoe still has a special status.
If it weren't for Benjamin's excellent record at Tottenham that suppressed all doubts, he would have been talked about by many people about sending away the veteran Defoe.
Of course, Benjamin himself doesn't care.
If nothing else, this match will be Defoe's last game at White Hart Lane, and he will naturally put in extraordinary effort.
In the 73rd minute, Lamela passed the ball, Defoe turned and broke away from the marking of the visiting full-back Parr and scored the goal!
In response, supporters of the Lily Legion in the stands chanted Defoe's name and clapped for him.
With tears in his eyes, the veteran waved to the fans on the sidelines.
There were no surprises after that, as Tottenham beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at home.
Benjamin also ushered in a five-game winning streak in all competitions since taking office!
"How? The injury is not serious, is it? ”
"I've checked it, there's nothing wrong, it's just a build-up of fatigue, just give the leg muscles a good massage to relax."
Benjamin breathed a sigh of relief, if Walker was injured, Norton, who had limited ability, really couldn't reassure him.
In this way, he doesn't have to spend points to buy a medical card, which is really good.
"Boss, why don't you let that team doctor from Huaguo treat me!"
At first, Kane and a few other young players called him that, but as Benjamin's prestige grew, almost all the players in the team now called him that.
Benjamin:???
You don't have any injuries, just call a physiotherapist to give you a massage.
But when he saw Walker's longing eyes, Benjamin threw in the towel.
"Okay, I'll let Zhang Hai press it for you."
A week later, in the 22nd round of the Premier League, Tottenham went away to face Welsh side Swansea.
Although home striker Bony opened the scoring first, Benjamin's side quickly found their form.
Bam Adebayor scored twice, Harry Kane netted a goal as Tottenham beat Swansea 3-1.
In this round, Liverpool was held to a 2-2 draw by Aston Villa at home, and Tottenham managed to rise to fourth place in the standings, two points ahead of the Reds.
"Now that we're in the top four, I'm going to be straight and our goal this season is to finish in the top four.
We will do everything we can to fight for a Champions League place until the very end! ”
When asked by reporters after the game if the team's goals had changed, Benjamin simply stopped pretending and had a showdown.
Otherwise, Tottenham Hotspur has won all the way to the Champions League zone, and it is a bit duplicitous to keep saying that their goal is only to be in the top six.
"We noticed that the Togolese striker, Bam Adebayo, returned to the starting line-up and scored two goals today.
Mr. Lewis, can you tell us a little bit about what this situation is? ”
"Oh, you said Bam Adebayo, he's been in great form in training lately, so we decided to give him a chance to start.
His goal today proved that we were right, and I always believed that he was a very good striker. ”
'The youngster who came off the bench Harry Kane was also in great form and scored a goal, would you consider putting them on at the same time?'
"Why not? Maybe in the next game you'll see two of their brilliant strikers playing side by side. ”