Author: Ant who loves watching football

February 29, afternoon.

Wembley Stadium, located in northwest London, was packed today.

Nearly 90,000 spectators came to the scene to watch the League Cup final!

Wembley Stadium, where the game will be held today, is the largest professional football stadium in Europe and can be said to be one of the greatest stadiums in the world. It is also known as the temple of world football.

It is the home stadium of the England national team and has hosted the World Cup finals, Olympic football finals, European Cup finals, eight UEFA Champions League finals, and it is also the final venue for England's domestic cup competitions.

During this period, it also witnessed the glorious moment when England won the World Cup in 1966.

It is the dream of countless people to compete in such a hall of glory venue full of history.

Pan Yi and his Chelsea team have come here for the second time this season.

The last time, they defeated Arsenal 3-0 in the Community Shield final and won Chelsea's first championship this season.

"Just treat this place as your home, we will come here often."

When walking into the stadium through the players' tunnel, Pan Yi smiled and said to Arteta beside him.

Arteta smiled and nodded.

He understood what Pan Yi meant by what he said.

Because in addition to the Community Shield and League Cup finals, the FA Cup semi-finals and finals will also be held at Wembley Stadium.

If Chelsea can participate in all these games, everyone will have at least four opportunities to stand here in a season.

If you come to Wembley so often, wouldn't it feel like home?

Of course, this "home" only represents the familiarity with this place, which is still incomparable with Stamford Bridge, my home stadium.

For example, in the stands now, the fans of Chelsea and Manchester City are separated and occupy the surrounding stands. It can be said that they are clearly divided and evenly matched.

In such a neutral venue, the distribution of tickets is of course even, so the number of fans on both sides is about the same.

Both sides also sent their main forces to fight.

Compared with the previous round of 16 match against Chelsea in the FA Cup, Manchester City's lineup has certainly undergone extensive changes this time.

On the front line are Aguero, Sterling and David Silva.

The three midfielders are Fernandinho, Yaya Toure and Fernando.

The back four will be Clichy, Otamendi, Kompany and Sagna.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart.

As for Chelsea, except for the goalkeeper who still uses the second-choice Martin, the other positions are basically the main force.

Except for the fact that Seat B had a cold and needed rest, he was not included in the squad.

Forwards: Harry Kane, Lukaku

Midfielder: Marcos Alonso, Hazard, Matic, Kante, Azpilicueta.

Defenders: Ake, Van Dijk, David Luiz.

Goalkeeper: Martinez.

This is mainly because Pan Yi promised Martin to use him in the domestic cup, so even in the finals.

Besides, although Martin is not as good as Courtois in terms of playing the ball, his goal-line skills are not much worse, and he will often make miraculous saves to save the team.

Another point is that Martin's ability to save penalty kicks is also outstanding, and he can still play a key role in such a game that determines the outcome.

As soon as the game started, Martin withstood the test.

Manchester City launched an almost crazy press against Chelsea from the very beginning.

In the 2nd minute, Manchester City successfully stole the ball from Chelsea near the halfway line.

After Yaya Toure stole the ball, he quickly launched a counterattack and passed it to the left.

Clichy cut in at high speed from the left, handed the ball to Sterling, and then went straight to the baseline along the sideline.

After attracting Azpilicueta's attention, Sterling suddenly passed the ball across.

After stopping the ball, Fernandinho shook off Matic's defense and fired directly.

However, the Brazilian midfielder's shot was still blocked by Matic, who was focused and stretched his legs.

After David Silva stopped the ball, he quickly passed the ball forward to Sterling.

The happy Englishman dribbled the ball forward quickly, and his speed was so fast that even Azpilicueta was chasing him all the way, but he couldn't find a chance to make a move.

After Sterling rushed into Chelsea's 30-meter area, he was already leaning in the middle and passed diagonally to the space on the right rib.

Aguero followed up to stop the ball, and at this moment he faced David Luiz who had retreated to the line of the penalty area.

The Chelsea central defender chose to rush forward and pounced directly on Aguero.

But Aguero is a brave man. In a one-on-one situation, he first made an emergency stop and then suddenly threw away David Luiz.

He dribbled the ball in from the right rib, went to the right side of the top of the penalty area, and hit a long curved shot with his left foot.

This shot was very sudden, but Chelsea goalkeeper Martin was very focused. After moving quickly, he flew to save and lifted the ball over the crossbar with one hand.

When Martin landed, the entire Wembley Stadium burst into thunderous applause.

"Chelsea goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez performed brilliantly."

"This goalkeeper from Argentina previously played for Arsenal, but he was only the team's third goalkeeper. It was difficult to get playing time in the team, so he had to be rented out most of the time."

"But after being introduced to Chelsea by Pan Yi, although he still couldn't compete with Courtois for the main goalkeeper position, he got stable playing time in the League Cup and FA Cup."

"And his performance was quite good, helping the team reach the League Cup final and the FA Cup quarter-finals. He is the best goalkeeper in these two cup competitions."

"It is reported that Emiliano Martinez has attracted the attention of many teams. Even Wenger is considering whether to repurchase the goalkeeper who joined Arsenal's youth training camp at the age of 17..."

"Let's take another look at this save and see why so many people want him."

"You can see from the slow motion that Aguero's arc is very beautiful, almost going straight to the blind corner of the goal."

"But Emiliano Martinez reacted very quickly. After pushing his feet to the ground, he quickly moved to the back point and then reached out to block the ball."

"As the saying goes, a good goalkeeper is worth half of the team, and Chelsea's second goalkeeper is so good. It's really impressive how thick their bench is."

"It is precisely because their lineup is extremely deep that they have been able to attack on all fronts and have not shown signs of fatigue so far!"

"Of course, Manchester City is fully prepared today, just to prevent Chelsea from winning all the championships!"

"Today's League Cup final, the game entered the fast lane from the beginning, and neither team held back at all."

——

However, in addition to Martin, Manchester City's goalkeeper Joe Hart also showed a heroic performance today.

When people mention Joe Hart, they often only think of him as the backdrop for those god-level goals, but sometimes they forget that he is also the kind of goalkeeper with extremely quick reactions and excellent goal-line skills.

In fact, Joe Hart is already considered the best goalkeeper in England after Seaman. Otherwise, he would not have played for a Premier League champion like Manchester City, nor would he have secured his main position in the England national team.

Of course he has his weaknesses, that is, he is just a traditional English goalkeeper with a narrow attack range and average ball-playing ability.

When the team attacks and the front line moves forward, the goalkeeper needs to be good at attacking and have a wide range of control, which is not his characteristic.

In other words, he is better at playing as a squatting goalkeeper - a bit like De Gea, but he is not qualified for the duties of a sweeper goalkeeper.

So when Guardiola arrived, he had no future at Manchester City.

However, like today, Chelsea's strength took advantage and they quickly controlled the situation. After controlling the ball, Joe Hart had many opportunities to perform.

Less than three minutes after Aguero tested Martin with a left-footed shot, Chelsea launched an attack from the left.

Hazard passed the ball to the center of the penalty area with his left foot. Lukaku beat Otamendi and headed the ball into the far corner. When it was still in the upper right corner, Joe Hart flew sideways and fished the ball out. The same thing.

Won applause from the audience.

This is just the beginning.

This head-to-head battle organized by the two teams from the very beginning made the entire Wembley Stadium of nearly 90,000 fans excited to watch.

After that, almost every one or two minutes, there would be a threatening attack or even a shot.

Chelsea obviously took more shots.

However, Joe Hart's outstanding performance on the goal line prevented Chelsea's several threatening shots from scoring.

The England international was at his best from the start and Chelsea were soon punished for their missed chances.

In the 25th minute, after Manchester City stole the ball in midfield, they quickly broke into the frontcourt.

Clichy passed the ball across from the left to Sterling in the ribs, who then passed it across to Fernandinho.

After Fernandinho passed the ball to Yaya Toure, he quickly started and ran laterally.

After receiving the counterattack from the Ivorian, he passed the ball to the penalty area to find Aguero, changed his direction and went straight into the penalty area.

But Aguero's counterattack failed to reach Fernandinho's feet smoothly, but was blocked by Van Dijk.

At this time, Sagna, who came up from the right, received the ball near the wing and passed directly to Aguero, but this time the ball was pushed away by Aguero.
To be continued...