Chapter 86: Blackpool by the Sea

The quarter-finals of the EFL Cup are coming.

The draw results showed that Arsenal's opponent was a team called Blackpool.

This is a team with a long history, founded in the seaside city of northwest England.

He has been playing in the lower leagues of England all year round, and his craziest season happened to be in the 2016/2017 season. In the League Two promotion play-offs, he defeated Exeter City 2:1, performing a performance that can only be encountered in the NBA. 'Black Seven Wonders'.

It is also based on this game that Blackpool's morale has greatly increased. In the past two seasons, they have shown an aggressive attitude and want to hit the English Championship.

They made it all the way through the EFL Cup. After defeating the English Championship team Queens Park Rangers 2-0 in the last round, they advanced to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup.

But unlike the last game, this time they encountered a game that they were even more convinced of, even impossible to defeat.

Arsenal!

Nowadays, the entire European team is like a nightmare.

When a League One team meets Arsenal, the biggest favorite in the Champions League and currently undefeated in all major competitions, the result seems obvious.

But unlike the fear of other teams, Blackpool's enthusiasm increased instantly.

‘We met Arsenal! We're going to play at the Emirates Stadium! ’

This sentence has become the most common saying among Blackpool fans.

As a low-level team, it would be extremely difficult for them to meet a Premier League team.

Whether it's the FA Cup or the EFL Cup, they have to go through all the competition before they can meet these Premier League teams, let alone the giants.

Based on the strength of the teams themselves, the FA Cup and the EFL Cup give these strong teams very large discounts in terms of settings.

For example, these Premier League teams don't even need to play the first few rounds, but start directly from a specific round.

And this is also to adjust the quality of the game and avoid something like the German Cup, where the Bundesliga team encountered a strange team in the corner and ended up with double-digit goals.

It can be said that for these low-level teams in England, they have encountered these wealthy teams against all odds, and this is just the beginning of these wealthy teams.

Even with such a huge gap, these low-level teams are still extremely yearning for it.

Especially teams like Blackpool who are ambitious and want to climb up. They want to compete with these top teams and verify their strength and gaps during the game.

If they are lucky enough to score against Arsenal, it will be enough bragging rights for these players.

It can be said that playing this game will not do any harm to them.

What's more, for Blackpool, being able to reach the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup is definitely a historic moment.

Their previous best record was in 1953, when they won an FA Cup.

Of course, this is the only championship they can win.

As for this type of championship, there are not to mention how many there are in Arsenal's honor room.

In Blackpool, the moist and salty sea breeze blows, taking away the dust in the air.

At a construction site, a young man with short hair and dark skin excitedly grabbed a worker's arm and said, "Hey! Dad, we are about to play football with Arsenal, and that's Arsenal!" The giant Arsenal! There are superstars like Kai, Aubameyang and Giroud, and we are going to play with them, hahaha!”

The father was wearing a construction hat and a one-piece overalls, with a look of exhaustion on his face, and said, "My son, congratulations. I sincerely wish you excellent performance."

The young man nodded fiercely and clenched his fist hard; "Don't worry, I will perform well in the game, impress Mourinho, join a wealthy club, and then liberate you from this hellish place."

With a hint of relief in his eyes, his father said with a smile, "Of course, I believe you, but you are the genius Thompson of Hawke Town!"

This boy's name is Jordan Thompson, who comes from a small town in Northern Ireland.

He is a well-known talent locally. After a successful trial, he joined Blackpool and is now the main force in the team.

Thompson looked at his father and said, "I'm going to London soon. Will you watch my game?"

"Of course!" Dad smiled: "I won't miss any of your games."

"Look!"

Thompson clenched his fist again, then turned and left.

The father looked at Thompson's back and finally exhaled slowly, a little helplessness could be heard in his voice.

In the view of this experienced father, he will inevitably suffer various blows and setbacks in the process of growing up, and this may be the first setback that Thompson faces that may affect his life.

For Thompson, who was born in a small place, played in a low-level league, and has always been called a genius, he has always lived in the admiration of others.

But there is not just one genius in this world.

The ambitious Thompson followed the team to the arena where they were about to compete, and under the spotlight and the attention of the media, played this wealthy game.

But after only 30 minutes of the game, Thompson began to doubt life.

Under the dazzling sunshine, the scoreboard read a huge score of 3:0.

Yes!

In 30 minutes, they conceded three goals.

During the whole process, they could only passively take the beating. Thompson, who claimed to be a genius, had very few touches throughout the game. The ball was even intercepted before he could get enough feel for the ball.

But the most critical thing was not these.

It was the two teenagers on the Arsenal side.

A black teenager and a white teenager.

These two teenagers were about the same age as him, but they wore the jerseys of the giant Arsenal and started in the League Cup.

You should know that Thompson, who was called a genius by people around him, was still playing in the third-level English League One.

And the teenager who might be younger than him had signed with Arsenal and performed brilliantly surrounded by a group of star teammates.

Yes!

It was gorgeous!

In Thompson's view, every pass of Odegaard and Saka was so wonderful.

Perhaps such players can be regarded as true geniuses!

At this moment, all the halos of Thompson were stripped clean.

How could he be a genius?

It was shit!

This stage was not built for him at all, but for those two dazzling geniuses.

"Oh~~~~~! God! Young Gunners! I haven't been so excited for a long time! Odegaard and Saka, they scored a goal each, there is nothing better than this!"

"Yes, we would like to see more young Gunners walk onto the Emirates Stadium and become a new force."

"The last time I was so excited was in the 2012-2013 Arsenal revenge game against Manchester United. In that game, we met Kai! And this game is only a little less exciting than that one!"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

The whole Emirates Stadium was filled with laughter.

George Adams' humorous commentary made them very satisfied.

Of course, with the background of the game and the performance of the two young players, they can watch the game more comfortably.

In this game, Arsenal almost played with a substitute lineup.

As for the main players, except for Lukay, Kante, Giroud and goalkeeper Martinez, the rest are all substitutes.

But even so, Arsenal still scored three goals in 30 minutes, which shows the difference in strength.

Three goals were scored in the first half, and the suspense of the game was almost gone.

After all, it was Arsenal.

It was almost unimaginable that Blackpool completed the comeback when it was behind.

Mourinho off the court was also very satisfied with the performance of Saka and Odegaard in this game.

However, Blackpool failed to bring too much pressure to Arsenal, so Odegaard was very comfortable holding the ball, and it was a pity that he failed to form a training.

It seems that you still need to go up to get enough training.

At this stage, the opponent is still too weak.

As for the problem of losing, Mourinho never thought about it at all.

Even if it is really behind, the worst thing is to put some main players on. Except when facing some Premier League teams, Arsenal's substitutes are enough to deal with the situation.