Leeds United face Manchester City away on September 23, 2006.

DiMatteo led the team to Manchester City Stadium to challenge Sun Jihai’s team. It was a Chinese derby, and it had been very noisy in the Chinese media a long time ago, and the English media were hyping it up like crazy.

There are actually three Chinese in these two teams. This is simply the golden age of Chinese football.

Chinese fans and media have been looking forward to this match for a long time. They have been looking forward to this match for a long time, covering this match and warming up for this match.

This match in China was really popular and everyone was looking forward to it.

However, at this time, Zhong Cheng was actually suspended. This was undoubtedly a basin of cold water poured down from above his head, pouring a chill into the hearts of Chinese fans and media people.

The FA really don’t do anything about it. It’s useless.

This Chinese derby was naturally greatly reduced. Fortunately, Leeds United brought in a Chinese player, Shao Jiayi, this season. Although it was a pity that Zhong Cheng was gone, there were still Shao Jiayi and Sun Jihai. The Chinese derby was still there.

Moreover, Shao Jiayi had obtained some chances in the Leeds United matches. It could be seen that Zhong Cheng’s position towards Shao Jiayi was between the rotation of the main force and the rotation of the substitutes. Shao Jiayi was still able to obtain a chance to play in the Leeds United matches.

There is still hope for this Chinese derby.

Therefore, the Chinese fans and the Chinese media are also more concerned and valued, they are still doing publicity for the Chinese derby, reporting on the game.

The English media are also reporting, because the previous England-China derby was somewhat undeserved. Sun Jihai played very well for Manchester City and was an important player in the team. But Lee has been injured, there is no chance to play, the Chinese derby is very difficult to have the opportunity to play.

But now it was different. With Zhong Cheng and Shao Jiayi in the Leeds United team, the Chinese derby could be staged.

This match attracted a lot of people to watch, but Zhong Cheng did not go away.

DiMatteo was in charge of the game and led the team away.

This match was very important to Leeds United, because in the previous match, Leeds United had already drawn twice in a row. Although they hadn’t lost in the new season, their results had been greatly affected. Now Leeds United still wanted a victory to catch up with Manchester United and the others in front of them.

Dimatteo was also very interested in the game he was coaching. He would not consider the Chinese derby but the possibility of winning.

Therefore, in this match, DiMatteo did not place Shao Jiayi in the starting lineup. Instead, he let Shao Jiayi sit on the bench and waited for an opportunity. This naturally made Chinese fans and the Chinese media feel uncomfortable, Shao Jiayi won the starting line-up.

Even the English media believed that the Chinese derby should be the Chinese derby. Why didn’t they start Shao Jiayi? Shao Jiayi’s strength was not bad. A direct free kick from him had brought Leeds United three points. He had strength.

Perhaps it was because DiMatteo was under too much pressure. He did not choose Shao Jiayi, nor did he let Hua Jin rest. Instead, he let Hua Jin continue to start.

Of course, the Manchester City team had expelled Sun Jihai. Sun Jihai was the main player.

Sun Jihai’s strength is not bad. He occupies a leading position in the Manchester City Club. He appeared at right-back today.

With a beep, the competition officially began.

DiMatteo’s Leeds United seemed to have continued Zhong Cheng’s style, still retaliating defensively.

However, DiMatteo’s tactics still have his shadow, he wants the players to defend more like Italian chain defense, so the Leeds United players do not seem to be performing at their best.

In the nineteenth minute of the first half, Leeds United were the first to concede.

The goal was scored by Sun Jihai, the Chinese player of Manchester City Club. Sun Jihai made a long shot from the right front of the forbidden area and directly sent the football into Leeds United’s goal.

The starting goalkeeper of the game was Simon Mignolet, and Zhong Zheng was recovering from a minor injury.

DiMatteo was about to vomit blood when he saw this. The defensive movement was obviously slow, how could he give the Manchester City players such a big gap? This ball actually allowed Sun Jihai to score a goal. Really.

Dimateo couldn’t sit still anymore and immediately stood up, shouting at the field, telling the players to pay attention to their defenses. After Di Mateo shouted, the Leeds United players defended better, but only limited.

The Manchester City team’s performance today was really good, especially right-back Sun Jihai. Today, this fellow was like a drug addict. He was present in both offense and defense, making it difficult for Leeds United to defend against him.

DiMatteo shouted loudly, asking the team to restrict Sun Jihai, but none of them had succeeded.

At the end of the first half, Sun Jihai crossed from the right and assisted the Manchester City center to score a goal, 2-0.

At the end of the first half, Leeds United were 2-0 behind, and the game was hanging in the balance.

Most importantly, the Leeds United players did not play very well in the first half. They seemed to be in worse shape, so they played very badly.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, DiMatteo made a substitution, but Edison Cavani’s performance was also not good. The City fans on the scene shouted Edison Cavani parallel imports, Edison Cavani and Tevez are both big parallel imports.

It was these two that destroyed Zhong Cheng’s reputation as a miraculous eye.

In this match, DiMateo really felt that he was powerless. He felt that there was nothing wrong with his tactics, but the players were in a terrible state and could not meet his requirements. By the time he wanted to retreat and defend, the team was already two goals behind. How could they play in this match?

Leeds United have no choice but to attack.

Not to mention, after the attack, Leeds United’s performance was even better, and the threat was even greater.

Luca Tony and Joaquin led Leeds United’s attack, with Luca Tony heading several times in the penalty area to threaten City’s goal. But Manchester City defended well today, and with good luck, Luca Tony had no better choice.

At this moment, Dimatteo was a little regretful. Why didn’t he kick like this in the beginning? If it had been played like this at the beginning, would the game have been won soon?

Leeds United’s attack came a little late. Luca Tony’s attack was a threat, but Manchester City’s defense was better. In the end, Leeds United lost 2-0 to Manchester City, ushering in their first defeat of the season.

Of course, Shao Jiayi didn’t get a chance in the entire match. He had been on the bench for 90 minutes. The Chinese derby that everyone was looking forward to did not arrive. This match became Sun Jihai’s solo performance. His performance was very outstanding. One goal and one assist, it was him who ended Leeds United’s unbeaten record!

After the match, Sun Jihai was naturally praised to the heavens. Dimatteo was miserable, being belittled by countless people, claiming that Dimatteo was not suitable to be the head coach, and that he would be suitable to be an assistant coach for the rest of his life, which dealt a great blow to Dimatteo.

Fortunately, after this match, he had the opportunity to rest, adjust and learn.

Because the next game is the Carling Cup of England and the Champions League.

In this Carling Cup match, Leeds United had put out a half-main lineup, and Shao Jiayi had appeared in the starting line-up for this match. What hit DiMatteo’s face was that Shao Jiayi had performed very well in this match, directly sending out three assists, completing the assists hat-trick, helping the team defeat Nan’an United 3-0.

After this match, many media reporters and fans questioned Dimatteo and Shao Jiayi’s condition. Why didn’t Shao Jiayi play in the last Premier League match against Manchester City? If Shao Jiayi had gone on stage, it would not have been Sun Jihai’s performance alone.

DiMatteo really couldn’t defend himself at this moment. Who told Shao Jiayi to be in such a good condition?

To tell the truth, DiMatteo was actually a little regretful. Why didn’t he let Shao Jiayi go on stage at that time? He still didn’t believe in Chinese players, so he let Shao Jiayi sit on the bench for an entire game.

Leeds United fans applauded and cheered for Shao Jiayi.

After this match, Leeds United returned to their home ground and waited for Porto to arrive, a Champions League group game. Zhong Cheng’s suspension will not be reflected in the Champions League, so the game is still led by Zhong Cheng.

When Zhong Cheng appeared on the sidelines, the Leeds United fans were confident that they would win this match.

At this time, DiMatteo was standing beside Zhong Cheng, earnestly studying.

Leeds United are now ranked first in the group, and they are the only ones to win the first round. Porto and the Moscow Central Army drew 0-0, each with one point.

As long as Leeds United won this match, they would be able to consolidate their rankings in this group. This was something Zhong Cheng was happy to see.

Zhong Cheng naturally hopes that the team will be able to secure a place in the Champions League group stage as soon as possible so that they can focus more on the league.

Porto is no longer the Porto team from 03 years ago. Their glory days are over. The strength of this Porto team had declined by a lot. Zhong Cheng felt that defeating the Porto team should not be a problem.

At this time, Zhong Cheng had arranged a full-fledged lineup to play this match.

In this match, the Leeds United players were still not in such good condition, but Zhong Cheng still allowed the team to control the rhythm of the match firmly. This made DiMatteo stunned. Zhong Cheng was indeed very, very powerful.

The Porto side wanted to win away, attacking very positively, but the result was not ideal, Leeds United’s defense was very tight.

Shortly after the second half, Leeds United seized the opportunity to counterattack. Modric scored a very good goal from the front court, leading by one goal.

More than 20 minutes later, Leeds United broke through Porto’s goal again.

This time the goal was scored by Leeds United centre-back Giuseppe Compani, who headed in from Modric’s corner.

In this way, Leeds United beat Porto 2-0 at home, winning the second round of the Champions League group stage this season and placing first in the group with a two-game winning record.