Football: Starting from being abandoned by Barcelona

On August 29, Li Lei followed Leicester City to Bournemouth, preparing to challenge Bournemouth away at the Vitality Stadium.

Just two days ago, Leicester City defeated the third-tier team Bury with a full substitute lineup 4:0 and advanced to the next round of the League Cup.

In order to cope with the league, head coach Ranieri took the initiative to rotate some of the main players to keep everyone in the best condition.

When he came to the away locker room, Li Lei saw everyone smiling and in full condition. The good momentum of winning streak made everyone full of confidence.

Ranieri stood in front of the whiteboard in the locker room, with his hands on the edge of the table, his eyes firmly scanned every player, and slowly spoke.

"Guys, past victories have become history. We are facing a brand new opponent, Bournemouth, a newly promoted team, will cause us trouble in their own way."

"So, I need you to maintain the highest concentration and vigilance. We must continue to fight with a hungry mentality and regard every game as a life-and-death battle to determine our fate."

"Believe in yourself, believe in your teammates, we are all fighting for the common honor, even if the opponent shows amazing strength, it cannot shake our will."

"Remember, as long as we still have a glimmer of hope, we will never give up. In this game, we must strive for a beautiful start and lay the foundation for the subsequent journey."

"Come on, fearless, just fight for victory! Let's fight for the glory of Leicester City!"

When Ranieri's passionate speech fell the last syllable, a burst of warm applause and shouting broke out in the locker room.

"Come on! Come on! Come on!"

The players shouted the team slogan, which boosted their morale.

Then, Captain Morgan took the lead in walking into the passage and heading to the stadium.

Vardy followed, and Li Lei followed behind them. In this way, Leicester City's starting lineup walked out of the locker room one by one, ready to go.

Li Lei took a deep breath and felt the surging fighting spirit in his body. Ranieri's words ignited their blood and reminded everyone to stay rational.

Looking at the backs of his teammates in front of him, Li Lei took a firm step. He had kept Ranieri's instructions in mind and was determined to work tirelessly to achieve the goal of victory.

At the beginning of the game, Li Lei, who kicked off in the center circle, passed the ball horizontally to Mahrez.

Mahrez, who saw that the Bournemouth defenders had not yet entered the state, decisively launched a breakthrough.

This move immediately attracted the attention of Bournemouth midfielder Max Gradel.

Perhaps the attack was too sudden, Gradel did not control his body in defense and knocked Mahrez to the ground.

Seeing this, the referee immediately took out a yellow card to warn Gradel.

This was an overly rough defensive move, which could have caused serious damage to the opponent even if it was only one minute after the start of the game, which made Gradel have to be punished.

Li Lei hurried over to check on Mahrez. Fortunately, Mahrez was not injured, but just needed to take a break.

He helped Mahrez up and asked worriedly: "Brother, are you okay? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

Mahrez shook his head and said: "I'm fine, I was just a little dazed when he knocked me down. It may be because I broke through too quickly at the beginning, and he didn't react in time and started to attack."

Li Lei nodded and said: "Maybe, but this kind of defense is too rough. It is most important to take care of yourself and don't let this good start be ruined."

Mahrez laughed: "I know that this little collision won't knock me down, don't worry! They can't defend against our cooperation, I will be more careful to deal with their defense."

"That's good." Li Lei smiled and patted Mahrez, "We will slowly grind, and sooner or later we will find the flaws. Come on, we will definitely get good results!"

After Li Lei helped him up, the two exchanged glances and nodded tacitly.

It was not long after the start of the game, and the Bournemouth players were already defending so fiercely. It seems that today's game will be extremely difficult.

Bournemouth is currently ranked 12th in the standings, with 1 win and 2 losses in the first three rounds of the league, which is indeed a certain gap compared to Leicester City's 3 consecutive wins.

So in this game, Bournemouth's primary goal is to defend and look for counterattack opportunities.

They arranged a 4411 formation, with more players in the midfield than in the front line, and the whole team formed a dense defensive network.

This is obviously Bournemouth's rational judgment of their own strength. Facing Leicester City, which is currently performing well in the league, they dare not easily adopt active tactics, and choose a more stable defense to reduce mistakes.

At the same time, they also realized that there may be omissions in defense, so they still prepared a counterattack plan, hoping to seize the opponent's mistakes and counterattack.points.

This game depends on whether Bournemouth can use this defensive tactic to consume Leicester City's edge and seize the opportunity to counterattack at the expense of offense.

In contrast, Leicester City faces greater offensive pressure.

However, there are always unexpected things. In the 13th minute, Bournemouth organized an effective counterattack.

In the process of fighting for the ball, Leicester City midfielder Mark Albrighton misjudged and pushed Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson to the ground.

This made the opponent's player fall to the ground, holding his thigh with both hands in a very painful look, and Albrighton was directly given a yellow card by the referee.

Albrighton, who wanted to get an assist, has now become the sinner who made the team bear the impact.

Shortly after this time, Bournemouth quickly launched another attack. Midfielder Max Gradel broke through Leicester City's defense from the left and sent a fatal pass. Callum Wilson shot and scored!

When Bournemouth's players celebrated, Li Lei stood there with helplessness on his face.

Obviously, the Leicester City players were still commenting on Bournemouth's weak attack before, but now it seems that it is the Leicester City defense that is in poor condition.

After defending for most of the game, they have begun to be overwhelmed and have made many mistakes.

The Bournemouth players are getting braver and braver, and the steady defense has won them the opportunity to attack.

Li Lei is also helpless now, and he needs more communication and cooperation with his teammates.

Otherwise, it is difficult to reverse the passiveness by personal ability. Only by working together to attack can we break the iron wall of Bournemouth.

However, the nightmare is still going on. Although the rhythm of the game is controlled by Leicester City, Bournemouth's counterattack is steady and deadly.

In the 36th minute, Leicester City's defense was lost again, and Bournemouth's striker was about to break into the penalty area again.

At the critical moment, Leicester City defender Schlupp took radical measures and made a large-scale tackle on the opponent's ball-holding player, ending the threat.

But this rough defense still earned Schlupp a yellow card. It was obvious that Leicester City's defense was already in a mess when dealing with Bournemouth's quick counterattack.

Seeing Bournemouth threatening his goal again, Li Lei paced back and forth anxiously. The game couldn't go on like this.

The previous goal had already put Leicester City in a passive position. If they lost the ball again, they might suffer their first defeat.

If they let it develop like this, the game would be over. If they couldn't stabilize the situation, the second half would be even more dangerous.