The FA Youth Cup format was basically the same as the FA Senior Cup format. The FA Senior Cup was a deciding match from the beginning to the final, and the final was held at the new Wembley Stadium. The FA Youth Cup was a deciding match from the first round to the quarter-finals. The venue was determined by drawing lots, and the semi-finals and finals were based on the home and away rounds.
The 1/16 final between Manchester City's U18 and Liverpool's U18 was a decisive match. If the match ended in a draw, the two sides would go into 30 minutes of overtime. If the winner could not be determined in overtime, the game would enter a cruel penalty shootout.
Of course, the normal 90 minutes had not ended yet. The overtime and penalty shootout were still very far away. Li Qing, who was the youngest in this match, naturally clenched his fists tightly. Although his team's defense was not strong, he wanted to rely on his own strength to help the team advance to the top 16!
Previously, Mendes had communicated with the First Team manager, Klop, and said that Li Qing's current strength was a few levels higher than the U18 players. It was not worth it to be promoted to the U23 and hoped to enter the First Team.
If the First Team did not have a spot, then he hoped that the club would let Li Qing train in another team.
Kloppe made it clear that he had decided to stay in the FA Youth Cup. If he performed well, he could enter the First Team. Otherwise, he would be loaned to a team that was willing to provide opportunities to play.
Three goals could be said to be extremely outstanding, but Li Qing did not want to experience the feeling of losing, so he decided to help the team score another goal to overtake the score within a limited time and advance to the last sixteen of the FA Youth Cup.
The Liverpool U18 manager, Neil Critchley, made a personnel adjustment before the game resumed. He replaced Glenn McCauley with Brewster to increase the tacit understanding between the players in the front field and Li Qing.
The score returned to a balanced state, but time was running out. Both sides became more careful in their attacks. For example, Manchester City's U18, who had been trying to threaten the ball a while ago, rarely passed it. It was obvious that they were worried that the pass with high returns and low success rate would be seen through by the other side and thus play a high-quality counterattack.
Of course, this had something to do with the players 'physical decline. Once the football was intercepted, it was difficult to recover the stamina. Even if he recovered in time, what about the next time?
Li Qing's stamina had also decreased, but the head coach did not assign him any defensive tasks. Thus, he was still able to sprint at top speed more than ten minutes into the match.
Manchester City's U18 manager, Lee Carsley, saw that Li Qing was still full of energy and realized that the situation might not be good. He took advantage of a dead ball opportunity to explain to Forden.
As a result, the FA Youth Cup 1/16 final entered its slowest pace since the start of the game.
The game entered a slow pace, and the Liverpool U18 players got a rare chance to catch their breath. The scene became a stalemate, and no one could do anything to the other.
Ten minutes passed quickly in a stalemate. The game had reached the 85th minute, and the three substitutes available to both sides had all been used. Unfortunately, the stalemate in the score could not arouse the players 'determination to score, resulting in the score being unable to change.
As the game time decreased, Li Qing realized that Manchester City's U18 defense was getting better and better, especially his active attack on the right flank.
If he wanted to face goalkeeper A. Muri?, he would have to go through all sorts of obstacles. With his current skills, dribbling, and ball control values, it was very difficult to do so, so he secretly bought two five-star skill cards from the system store and waited for an opportunity to use them.
The three star players, Sancho, Diaz, and Forden, were affected by the decline in their physical fitness. Their offensive enthusiasm had decreased, but it did not mean that they did not want to attack. Instead, they were accumulating their physical strength and waiting for the opportunity to kill the game!
A goal at this time was no different from a fatal blow!
In the blink of an eye, another three minutes passed in the game. Diaz's dribbling in front of the penalty area was intercepted by Harvey White, and Liverpool's U18 got the opportunity to switch from defense to attack.
According to the arrangement of the head coach, Neil Critchley, the football team had to look for Li Qing immediately.
The substitute, Dillman, rushed towards Li Qing at the first moment and fouled before he received the ball.
The referee blew the whistle in his mouth, signaling for Dilman to foul.
Li Qing's field of vision was wide. When he saw that the Manchester City U18 player's playback speed was relatively slow, he suddenly realized that this might be a good chance to counterattack.
He quickly stood up from the ground and stopped the football in his arms. Then he quickly kicked it to Brewster, who came on as a substitute.
Brewster and Li Qing seemed to have a natural tacit understanding. He did not stop and directly passed the football forward.
Dillman, who had committed a foul, was still talking to the referee when he suddenly heard a roar behind him."Defend!"
At the same time, Dillman felt a strong gust of wind coming from his side. He turned around and saw that…it was Liverpool's U18's most threatening player, Li Qing!
Oh no!
Almost all of the Manchester City U18 players thought that the Liverpool U18 would slowly take a free kick from the backfield. Their speed of return was relatively slow until Brewster kicked the ball to Li Qing before they suddenly realized something.
Li Qing quickly moved forward with the ball. With a yellow card on his back, Lathibordier, whose stamina had clearly decreased, crashed into Li Qing from the side. However, he had clearly underestimated Li Qing's speed and overestimated his own speed. The two of them did not have any physical contact.
To an outsider, it looked more like Lathibordier had fallen to the ground while running.
Manchester City's two U18 centre-backs, T Wilson and E Francis, quickly returned to defend and kept a distance from each other. The defensive midfielder, Jovenny, reached out to grab Brewster, who was trying to receive him.
Li Qing, who was dribbling the ball, could quickly distinguish the situation even if he didn't raise his head. He quickly dribbled the ball across the center line and took the initiative to dribble the ball to find T Wilson and E Francis.
Manchester City's U18 backfield had three defenders and two defenders. The manager, Lee Carsley, was instantly irritated. He rushed to the sidelines when everyone's attention was on the field and roared,""Foul!"
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